Wh-Reduplication in Altai

The paper is concerned with a particular indefinite series in Altai and the questions these items raise for the theory of distributivity and semantics of indefinites. Tuba possesses a number of indefinite pronoun series. Most of them consist of a wh-root and a series marker – a particle (de/da, le/la etc.). One of the series though is derived from the wh-root not by adding a particle but via an operation of reduplication (kem-kem ‘who.REDUPL’, qandu:-qandu: ‘which.REDUPL’ etc.). Altai wh-reduplication is unique as far as we know: it patterns with lots of other known indefinites in non-specific contexts, but shows unusual behavior in referential specific episodic contexts. When not under an operator, reduplicated wh-words in Altai have plural indefinite reading with collective interpretation (‘several individuals at once’). Known indefinite pronouns that are acceptable both in non-specific and episodic specific contexts (Altai -de/-da series, Russian -to series, English some etc.) do not show any signs of plurality when they are specific. In Altai, to the contrary, the only available specific interpretation is plural. Known wh-reduplicated indefinites in other languages are ungrammatical in these contexts. Following the idea of a connection between indefiniteness and distributivity, one can view indefinite pronouns as markers of co-variation introducing a dependent variable (a variable the values assigned to which co-vary with those assigned to another variable, the so-called ‘domain variable’). We try to pursue this line. The derivation of sentences with wh-reduplication in Altai we believe involves the following steps: 1) as usual, the wh-word introduces Hamblin set of alternatives; 2) operation of reduplication ‘catches’ the Hamblin alternatives and makes them an ordinary, non-Hamblin set; 3) in the case of narrow scope – i.e. non-specificity – the plural participant gets interpreted distributively, as a sum; in the other case, it shifts to group and gets interpreted collectively. The analysis leaves many issues open, but we believe that the kind of indefinites we are discussing provide good grounds for the analogy between indefinites and distributivity, which needs to be explored further.